Fans of Russian lit will know Vladimir Mayakovsky as the great poet of the early Soviet era, but in 1925 – 100 years after the journey that led to Alexis de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America – he traveled to the United States (with stops first in Cuba and Mexico) and published his dispatches in Russian newspapers. (Mayakovsky did see the U.S. through Soviet eyes, but he loved New York City.)

“Human beings and other animals are, like plants, living things. In all three cases, Philippa Foot urged, there is room for speaking of healthy or unhealthy, excellent or defective specimens of their kind. This means that there is room to speak of the qualities conducive to their being healthy or excellent or otherwise. The vocabulary of human virtues and vices – courage, temperance, justice and so forth – belongs among the same structure of concepts. The human virtues, she proposed, are natural excellences, while human vices are natural defects.”

The Strand, on Union Square in Manhattan, is known for many things, including its book selection. But its consistent place in the world of tote bags might be equally famous – and now it has offered more than 100 designs. Why? “Books and tote bags go together naturally — one is an object to be carried, the other carries it. So it makes sense that Strand customers would gravitate toward the bookstore’s bags. The appeal of a tote, however, goes beyond mere utility.”

The model in question finds CAST working with real estate developers, city government, local arts commissions and other stakeholders to help arts nonprofits navigate an out-of-control real estate market. Solutions include acquiring properties for lease/buyback by arts organizations, master leasing to sustain affordable rents, and building the capacity of nonprofits to afford them a permanent asset without jeopardizing their core operations.

“New Yorker critic Arlene Croce [once] asserted that the Trocks weren’t addressing gender roles, but ballet roles, an altogether different topic: ‘a ballerina isn’t a woman but an abstraction of one.’ This distinction is politically and analytically useful: It aligns the Trocks squarely with high art, and makes clear that they aren’t – as some critics have said drag does – making fun of women. But it’s also wishfully tidy.”

“Think about it for a moment. Will there ever be an editorial fiat decreeing one person write all of the newspaper’s political commentary? A demand from the newspaper’s publisher (and Red Sox owner) John Henry that the Globe’s sports chat be limited to the speculations of one man or woman? Somehow, when it comes to the stage, and to the arts in general for that matter, decades of tradition are being obliterated as if there was no reason for criticism in the first place. Why?”

“The predominance of singular authority has diminished. Wikipedia has replaced Encyclopedia Britannica. With rising healthcare costs, many only consult a doctor after they’ve tried to diagnose and treat themselves via WebMD. And when we have a question, all we need to do is ask the Facebook hive mind. For better or worse, technology has given everyone the opportunity to amplify their own voice, and even the most powerful individual will not be able to compete with the shouting of the masses. This will elevate some voices and diminish others, while forcing us all to better discern who we will trust.”

“The lack of diversity in theatre criticism not only does a disservice to the field and the readers, but also to the playwrights and productions. Certainly such artists as Suzan-Lori Parks and Ayad Akhtar, and others artists of color whose work speaks particularly to questions of identity, deserve to have their work scrutinized by a more diverse group of critics. In the age of Hamilton fanatics in New York, Chicago, London, and beyond, audiences have proven that there is not just space but a hunger for stories by and about people of color that work to rewrite, expand, or totally replace the white canon. So where are their peers in criticism?”

“Works of paleoart – a genre that uses fossil evidence to reconstruct vanished worlds – directly shape the way humans imagine the distant past. It’s an easy form to define but a tricky one to work in. Paleontological accuracy is a moving target, with the posture and life appearance of fossil species constantly reshuffled by new discoveries and scientific arguments. Old ideas can linger long after researchers have moved on, while some artists’ wild speculations are proved correct decades after the fact.”

BBC World Service’s In the Studio visits the California poet laureate and former NEA chairman at his hilltop retreat, where he talks about how he feels a poem coming on physically and has to walk around as he’s composing it – as well as the origin of the ballad he wrote about the death of his Mexican-American cowboy grandfather in Wyoming. (audio)

“In the UK survey of 823 artists, 55.1% say they earn between £1,000 and £5,000 net per year while 17.7% earn between £5,000 and £10,000. At the raw end, 9.3% of UK artists state their income as zero. This combined figure of 82.1% is worse than the findings of a previous survey of 1,061 artists, conducted by a-n, an artist data company, which in 2013 found that 72% of artists earned under £10,000. Of the US respondents, 75.2% make less than $10,000, with the majority (48.7%) in the $1,000 to $5,000 bracket; 5.1% in the US stated their income as nothing.”

“On Nov. 9, 2016, I boarded the Lake Shore Limited, Amtrak’s overnight service from New York to Chicago. … Over the next 13 days, I would log 8,980 miles aboard six trains, traversing 31 states, subsisting mainly on Three Cheese Tortellini with Creamy Pesto Sauce and Vegetable Medley. During this time, I had conversations with upward of 80 strangers, almost all of whom I met over meals in the dining car.”

“A Reason To Survive, or ARTS, a nonprofit youth arts education center in National City, was close to being shuttered after its founder and CEO Matt D’Arrigo left his post in June. ‘It’s the classic tale of a founder transition,’ said D’Arrigo, who’s back at ARTS as a part-time consultant until the nonprofit is on stabler ground. ‘But it’s not fully closed, they’ve just scaled operations way back.'”

When the medieval-era shrine at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was restored last year, archaeologists found a previously unknown marble slab with a cross carved on it lying atop the limestone presumed to be the burial bed. Mortar on that marble has now been dated to the 4th-century reign of the Emperor Constantine – seemingly verifying the traditional history that he sent his mother, Helena, to find the location and have the original church built.

“At the moment, secondary ticketing sites are required to tell customers whether there are restrictions on using a resold ticket, such as the need for photo identification. They must also make clear exactly where the customer will be seated in the venue and who the customer is buying the ticket from, whether an individual or a business. Due to the large amount of evidence gathered, the [Competition and Markets Authority] has now broadened the scope of its investigation.”

“It has seemed that for the entire 2010s thus far, Facebook has been a place for composers and co. (whether to chat, laugh, share work, share opportunities, discuss musical issues, discuss politics, fight like hell) to come together. The same is true for actors, string players, academics, doctors, and bankers, to some extent, I’m assuming. But for composers, or for the several hundred spread over six continents whom I’m FBfriends with, at any rate, it has functioned as one of the relevant gathering places for those of us who couldn’t make it to the show last night. Our lot, as a rule, doesn’t congregate.”

“The [European] Court of Justice has made it quite clear: for a photograph to be protected by copyright, it must be original in the sense that the photographer has exercised creative choices and thereby stamped the photograph with their personal imprint. A photographer who merely seeks to control light and angles to create an image of a work of art is highly unlikely to have created a copyright work.”

“Under the current rules, taxpayers can subtract the year’s charitable gifts from their income, reducing the amount of earnings that are subject to tax. President Trump’s proposal for a higher ‘standard deduction’, adopted by both the House and Senate bills, could mean that many taxpayers who currently deduct charitable gifts will no longer be able to do so, which could reduce the tax incentive for donating art and money to museums. While museum donors probably will not stop giving as a result, they may give less.”

“Written for the Danish ensemble Trio con Brio and the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, which gave its premiere last year, L’Isola della Città (‘The Island in the City’) unfolds over nearly half an hour in five continuous movements. Stealthy and subtle, its central threesome of soloists – piano, violin and cello, as in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto – finds oases of calm amid flares of intensity from the orchestra.”

“I haven’t figured it out. But it’s settled on me, and it’s just there. … All my life, I’ve mouthed off about how I should stop acting, and I don’t know why it was different this time, but the impulse to quit took root in me, and that became a compulsion. It was something I had to do.”

“Just as Louis C.K. used his stand-up specials and FX show, Louie, to recast his own sexual misconduct as transgressive comedy, his peers – multi-hyphenate TV stars like [Aziz] Ansari, Tig Notaro and Lena Dunham – have used their own platforms to mine the experience of working with guys like him, and dig into issues like how to act on intractable rumors, the social discomfort of taking a stand, and the problem with well-meaning male allies.”

“This year’s increased number of artists of color and women may be a response to the current political climate in which many in those groups feel both threatened and moved to speak out. It most certainly reflects the academy’s attempt to address criticism that it is out of touch with notable artists and trends shaping pop music.” (For a complete list of nominees, click here.)

Two of the five opera nominees are by Alban Berg, and the closest thing to a warhorse is The Pearl Fishers. (Unless Wozzeck counts.) All of the nominated orchestras are American, but none are from the old “Big Five.” Three nominations went to the South Dakota Chorale. There’s one likely shoo-in, though: the late Dmitri Hvorostovsky, for Sviridov’s Russia Cast Adrift. (For a complete list of nominees, click here and scroll way down for classical.)

The 50th anniversary edition of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band didn’t make the cut, though the endlessly re-released Gould Goldberg Variations did. (This version includes every single take the pianist did.) The Goldbergs are up against a 25-disc set of Leonard Bernstein conducting Leonard Bernstein, excerpts from an archive of old Somali music that was buried in the desert during the long civil war, 1970’s Afro-pop and jazz from what’s now Burkina Faso, and songs by a zither-playing gospel-blues preacher. (For a complete list of nominees, click here.)

Education and EngagementEducation and engagement are increasingly being paired in job titles and descriptions. There is some sense to that, but the differences – with respect to fundamental focus – are significant. … read moreAJBlog: Engaging Matters Published 2017-11-28

Machine-Made ArtFor as long as there have been machines, I suppose, the question has been asked: Can Machines Make Art? … It’s an interesting question, but there is a supplementary question that I find even more interesting: How Much Do We Care About Machine-Made Art? … read moreAJBlog: Infinite Curves Published 2017-11-28

“The prize was given for his triple concerto L’isola della Città (The Island in the City), for violin, cello and piano. The five-movement work (played through continuously) was written for the Danish ensemble Trio Con Brio and The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, and was premiered in Copenhagen in January 2016.” (includes video)

Rob Clearfield, Wherever You’re Starting From (Woolgathering Records) The Chicago pianist’s low-key approach to solo piano might lead to wool-gathering that would justify the name of his label. But he bolsters the ... read more

One dating app I’ve used is called SilverDaddies, and my straight friends usually belch a laugh when they hear the name. “What’s funny?” I ask, and they never have an answer. Silver threads ... read more

NEW YORK – High Noon is a great movie, but does it immediately jump to mind as a story that’s ripe for re-evaluation and revision? The 1952 original was a superior western thanks to its strong ... read more

My staff of thousands informs me that the Smithsonian Institute has posted scans of three notebooks by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin dating from 1963 to 1973, and 1977. It was described to me ... read more

It’s common modern practice to consider art and commerce in opposition to each other, and artists and accountants as cartoonish polar opposites, as well. But it wasn’t always so. About 520 years ago, art and ... read more

Fredric March appears as the mystery guest on an episode of What’s My Line? originally telecast live by CBS on March 21, 1954. John Daly is the host and the panelists are Margaret Truman, Steve ... read more

“His imagination projected itself lovingly across the footlights, gilded and coloured the shabby canvas and battered accessories, and lost itself so effectually in the fictive world that the end of the piece, however long, or ... read more

This is the last of a series, introduced in Baby Steps, about arts organizations’ initial efforts in community engagement. For details about the premises upon which these posts are based, see below. The essence is ... read more

In pithy new blurbs, the National Portrait Gallery’s revamped and reinterpreted “America’s Presidents” installation strives to tell each former officeholder’s “unique stories of both triumph and failure” (in the words of the introductory wall text). ... read more

Charles Plymell writes: I sent Robert some old political cartoons on crumbling paper from 20’s-30’s & some extra sheets of the plain parchment which had beautiful tan sheen like I ran the first ZAP on. ... read more

From 2008: I never saw Paul Scofield on stage. Few Americans did: he performed in this country only once, in the 1961 Broadway production of Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons. So his death ... read more

“It occurs to me that writers don’t change much from the time they are thirty or thereabouts until they are laid away—permanently, I trust. As they grow older, they are apt to perform at somewhat ... read more

We had the Attacca String Quartet in residence here this past week. Started things off with a 2-hour seminar on composer-performer collaborations, featuring performances of three Caroline Shaw quartets: Entr’acte, Valencia and Blueprint. That evening, ... read more

Yesterday I spent eight long but gratifying hours at Houston’s Alley Theatre, rehearsing for the Texas premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf. Then I drove straight from the theater to the home of Lauren and ... read more

Yesterday I spent eight long but gratifying hours at Houston’s Alley Theatre, rehearsing for the Texas premiere of Satchmo at the Waldorf. Then I drove straight from the theater to the home of Lauren and ... read more

“I would have practiced the piano and realized that playing the piano is not something you just do to the best of your abilities. Playing the piano is something where you have to pursue your ... read more